Nucleic-acid biomarkers play pivotal roles in disease diagnosis, therapeutic monitoring, and precision medicine, creating an urgent demand for analytical platforms combining high sensitivity, molecular specificity, and rapid detection. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) integrated with aptamers, short single-stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotides, has attracted considerable attention by coupling programmable molecular recognition with ultrasensitive plasmon-enhanced Raman detection. This review evaluates recent advances in aptamer-based SERS biosensors for nucleic-acid analysis, systematically examining sensing mechanisms, plasmonic substrate engineering, aptamer immobilization, signal-transduction pathways, and amplification approaches, including catalytic hairpin assembly, hybridization chain reaction, rolling circle amplification, and CRISPR-assisted systems. Recent developments in microfluidics, artificial intelligence-assisted spectral analysis, portable Raman instrumentation, and point-of-care platforms are assessed while distinguishing true aptamer-mediated sensing from conventional hybridization-based DNA detection. Rational hotspot engineering, deterministic nanogap architectures, and advanced amplification strategies have enabled detection from femtomolar to attomolar levels with improved selectivity, multiplexing, and reproducibility. Challenges including substrate variability, quantitative standardization, aptamer stability, biosafety, and clinical translation are discussed. Future directions toward standardized, intelligent, clinically deployable SERS platforms for next-generation molecular diagnostics and precision healthcare are proposed.

Picophotonics describes light-matter interactions in which atomic-scale structure, sub-nanometer confinement, or picometer-scale structural variations significantly influence optical response. This review establishes a unified framework for understanding these interactions across plasmonic picocavities, molecular systems, and van der Waals (vdW) materials and heterostructures. We examine key mechanisms governing extreme optical confinement, including nonlocality, electron tunneling, charge-transfer effects, excitonic interactions, and phonon/plasmon polaritons. Experimental approaches, including scanning tunneling microscopy-based optical measurements, tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, near-field optical microscopy, and ultrafast spectroscopy, are discussed together with electromagnetic and quantum-mechanical modeling methods. Particular emphasis is placed on how atomic-scale structural variations, interfacial geometry, and material composition regulate optical response and enable applications in single-molecule spectroscopy, chemical sensing, cavity-modified chemistry, and quantum photonics. We further compare metallic picocavities with vdW polaritonic and hybrid plasmonic-vdW platforms in terms of confinement, losses, tunability, reproducibility, and scalability. Finally, key challenges involving experimental artifacts, heating, fabrication, and quantitative metrology are critically assessed, providing perspectives toward reproducible and programmable picoscale light-matter interactions.

Polyoxometalates (POM) are one of the areas of inorganic chemistry that is actively developing due to the broad application of POM-based materials in the emerging areas of modern science and technology. POMs are a huge family of oxocomplexes distinguished by specific intrinsic properties dependent on the size, structure, and charge. The key role in the performance of POM anions is the ability to generate various interactions with a huge number of species (both charged and neutral). This review is focused on the analysis of the modern trends in the most excited type of bonds-noncovalent interactions-their structural characteristics, and the application in the design of advanced materials.

Copper-mediated C─H amination has emerged as a powerful and sustainable strategy for constructing nitrogen-containing bioactive scaffolds, providing an efficient alternative to traditional cross-coupling methodologies. Historically, precious metals have dominated C─H amination chemistry but often suffer from limitations, including high cost, toxicity, and limited availability. In contrast, copper-based reactions offer several advantages: it is cost-effective, less toxic, earth-abundant, biocompatible, and environmentally benign, while minimizing the formation of undesired byproducts. This transformation enables the streamline synthesis of pharmacologically relevant heterocycles and alkaloids, offering access to bioactive molecules with enhanced therapeutic potential. This review highlights recent advances in design, mechanistic insights, and synthetic applications of copper-mediated C─H amination in medicinal chemistry. Particular emphasis is placed on its role in the construction of complex nitrogen frameworks and its integration into drug discovery and development. In addition, emerging approaches such as electrochemical C─H amination are discussed, demonstrating how these greener and more sustainable methodology can further reduce environmental impact while maintaining synthetic efficiency. By bridging the disciplines of transition-based synthesis and medicinal chemistry, this review underscores the pivotal role of copper in advancing next-generation, sustainable synthetic methodologies and inspiring future innovations in amine-based drug discovery.

Silica (SiO2) is an earth-abundant, low-cost material that has been explored for use in triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) for sustainable energy generation and in ecofriendly tires to support a healthy ecosystem. In particular, SiO2-based nanocomposites hold promise for applications in both TENGs and green tires, yet literature reviews on these applications are limited, with most research focusing on other composites. This study provides methods for synthesizing SiO2-based nanocomposites on conductive substrates for use in TENGs and for synthesizing SiO2-based elastomers for use in green-tire vehicles. First, the basic principles of TENGs and how these systems work are briefly described. Then, the types of SiO2-based nanocomposites and the relationship between structure and properties are reviewed. This review aims to provide a chemistry-based perspective to better understand the roles of SiO2 in these systems. It suggests new avenues for designing more efficient materials and, by focusing on the role of the interface and providing a coherent framework for the relationship between material design and performance, contributes to the development of advanced energy-harvesting systems and enhances the tire performance of rubber composites. This study summarizes past contributions of SiO2-based materials to TENGs and their role in advancing sustainable transportation over the last decade. Finally, this work provides perspectives on opportunities and challenges for the near-future advancement of green tires and triboelectric devices, leveraging the design functionalities of SiO2-based nanocomposites (or elastomers) to engineer high performance.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping organic synthesis; nevertheless, currently most laboratory practice still remains driven by human intuition, trial-and-error optimization, and manual interpretation of analytical data. Here, we synthesize recent advances that move AI from isolated demonstrations to a practical toolkit spanning the full experimental cycle: molecular design and prioritization, computer-assisted synthesis planning and route selection, catalyst and condition optimization, and AI-enabled product identification and verification using chromatographic and spectroscopic data. We analyze these developments using a three-level hierarchy-AI assistant, AI analyst, and emerging AI researcher-and map them onto what bench chemists can deploy today, from commercial and open retrosynthesis platforms to multimodal structure elucidation workflows. We also frame adoption as a strategic choice among three trajectories, arguing that near-term impact will be dominated not by fully autonomous robotic laboratories but by scalable "digital co-expert" approaches that compress candidate spaces and accelerate decision-making while preserving rigorous human validation. Finally, we highlight why data quality, laboratory variability, underreported negative results, and black-box failure modes demand calibrated reliance, mechanistic plausibility checks, and standardized synthesis applications. Together, these trends point to an end-to-end digital thread for organic synthesis that optimizes decisions across workflows rather than individual steps.

Silver vanadate is an important class of multifunctional inorganic materials with broad application prospects in photocatalysis, sensing, batteries, and antibacterial fields, owing to its unique crystal structure and excellent optical, electrical, and catalytic properties. This paper systematically reviews the main synthesis methods of silver vanadate, including hydrothermal, ion exchange, and sol-gel methods, among which the hydrothermal method is the most widely used due to its simple process and high product crystallinity. The research progress in photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants, antibacterial activity, and electrochemical energy storage is emphatically discussed. Finally, the current challenges in large-scale preparation and long-term stability are analyzed, and future research directions, including the construction of novel composite systems, innovation in modification strategies, and exploration of practical applications, are prospected.

This essay concerns Constantin Kirchhoff (1764-1833), a Russian chemist of German origin working at the Imperial Court Apothecary in St. Petersburg. In 1811, a quarter century before Berzelius coined "catalysis," Kirchhoff converted starch to grape sugar (glucose) with vitriolic (sulfuric) acid and established that a charge of acid far too small to have combined with the starch nevertheless converted all of it, that reducing the acid lengthened the process without altering the product, and that the acid remained, to be neutralized, at the end. The practical result-crystalline sugar from potato starch-was promptly recognized and rewarded. The finding beneath it was not: Berzelius credited the discovery to Kirchhoff and stated that the acid was recovered unchanged, but the notice did not take, and Kirchhoff was remembered for the sugar. What he set down was a protocol of unusual completeness for its date-the proportions, the four runs, and the times-made at manufacturing scale before Academy witnesses, and he claimed nothing beyond what he had weighed. On this evidence, Kirchhoff was the first to record what would later be recognized as a homogeneous catalytic reaction in organic chemistry, in a year that had neither the concept nor a word for it.

Amyloid-β (Aβ), a 39-43-amino-acid peptide, is closely associated with the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and undergoes abnormal aggregation that contributes to disease progression. Therefore, rapid and accurate Aβ detection is essential for early AD diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring. Biosensors have emerged as promising analytical tools owing to their simplicity, low cost, high sensitivity, and selectivity. In particular, metal-organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks, and MXenes offer unique structural and functional advantages for Aβ sensing. This review summarizes recent advances in Aβ biosensors based on these materials, with emphasis on comparative analytical performance across electrochemical, optical, photoelectrochemical, and dual-mode platforms. Current challenges, including matrix interference, limited discrimination of Aβ isoforms, and biosensor miniaturization, are discussed. Future directions involving artificial intelligence and machine learning are also highlighted to advance rapid, sensitive, and accurate Aβ detection for early AD diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring.

In the published version of his March 2004 Priestley Medal address, E. J. Corey stated "On May 4, 1964, I suggested to my colleague R. B. Woodward a simple explanation involving the symmetry of the perturbed (HOMO) molecular orbitals for the stereoselective cyclobutene/1,3-butadiene and 1,3,5-hexatriene/cyclohexadiene conversions that provided the basis for the further development of these ideas into what became known as the Woodward-Hoffmann rules." This current publication describes how Corey, based on his knowledge of the chemical literature and his own research activities, was well-positioned to conceive of a frontier molecular orbital mechanism of electrocyclic reactions. Several disclosures revealing aspects of orbital control of concerted reactions were made by Corey during a Woodward group meeting in 1961 and, according to Corey, to Roald Hoffmann in April 1964. Details, as provided by Corey, of his May 4, 1964, meeting with Woodward during which he presented Woodward with the mechanism of what was later named "electrocyclic reactions" will be presented. Letters and emails written by Corey to Hoffmann and interviews conducted by this author with Corey, Hoffmann, Douglas and Linda Applequist, Albert Eschenmoser, Alfred G. Hortmann, Jos Schlatmann, and others provide further information regarding Corey's intellectual property claim against Woodward and subsequent interactions with Hoffmann.

Organocatalysis has undergone remarkable conceptual expansion over the past two decades, evolving from isolated early 20th century observations into a broad platform for designing structurally diverse and functionally sophisticated catalysts. While early developments were strongly influenced by straightforward analogies to natural enzymes, recent advances demonstrate that inspiration from biological catalysis can extend far beyond direct mimicry. This review covers representative examples in which chemists reinterpret, broaden, or strategically depart from enzymatic logic to achieve new reactivity and improved catalytic performance. We first examine organocatalysts derived from enzymatic cofactors, including thiamine-inspired carbene catalysts and pyridoxal-based systems, whose functions have been adapted for transformations not observed in nature. We then discuss catalysts engineered for efficient operation in aqueous media, followed by chemoenzymatic cascade processes. Further sections illustrate how organocatalysis can emulate biosynthetic logic in the construction of complex natural products. Finally, we highlight the reverse flow of inspiration, where organocatalytic concepts inform the design of engineered biocatalysts.

The transition to low-carbon energy systems is increasingly constrained by the intrinsic limitations of conventional materials, which often struggle to simultaneously deliver high catalytic activity, long-term stability, and operational durability. Over the past decade, high-entropy materials (HEMs) have emerged as a transformative materials-design paradigm that addresses these challenges by shifting from single-principal-element optimization to entropy-driven stabilization of multicomponent, highly disordered solid solutions. This review critically traces the evolution of functional HEMs from their metallurgical origins to their growing prominence in energy-related ceramic and ionic systems. We elucidate the thermodynamic foundations of the field, examining how the four core effects-high-entropy stabilization, severe lattice distortion, sluggish diffusion, and the cocktail effect-translate into tangible performance enhancements in electrochemical applications. Adopting a structure-centric framework, we highlight recent breakthroughs across key lattice families, including the suppression of cation segregation in high-entropy perovskite cathodes for solid oxide fuel cells, the expansion of redox windows in high-entropy layered double hydroxides for supercapacitors, and the precise electronic tuning of active sites in high-entropy spinels for nitrate reduction electrocatalysis. Furthermore, we assess advances in synthesis strategies, contrasting thermodynamically driven solid-state approaches with kinetically controlled solution-based routes essential for nanoscale engineering.

Metal oxytellurides (MOTs), a new class of mixed-anion oxychalcogenides with both O[2-] and Te[2-] ions, provide a highly tunable platform for next-generation electronic and energy devices. The structural chemistry of MOTs consists of the hard covalent oxide network with soft, polarizable telluride sublattice resulting in tunable electronic structures, adaptable coordination, and enhanced spin-orbit coupling. This Account aims to synthesize the structure-property relationships in MOTs with a unifying theme of how small deviations in anion order, composition, defect chemistry, and coordinated state can dramatically affect band structure, electron/hole transport, thermal transport, and electrochemical properties. Synthesis discussions focus on the importance of leveraging solid-state, flux-mediated, microwave-assisted, high-pressure, and topochemical transformations for phase stabilization, defect engineering, and particle/morphology control. The typical bandgap range across MOT families varies between ∼0.14 and 5.5 eV, and the highest reported thermoelectric figure of merit is ZT ≈ 1.06 for Te-substituted BiCuOTe. Structural models are analyzed with computational analysis, using density functional theory, giving insight into phase stability, defect preferences, and the consequent electronic structure evolutions. Guided by these models, descriptors, and computational predictions, select future directions are suggested for large-scale manufacture, compositional space exploration, property optimization, and commercialization of MOTs for thermoelectric, electrochemical, and optoelectronic devices.

The growing global energy demand and the need for sustainable energy technologies have accelerated the development of advanced electrochemical energy storage systems. Covalent organic frameworks, class of crystalline porous polymers formed through reversible covalent bonding, have emerged as promising materials for energy storage applications. Their tunable porosity, high surface area, structural diversity, and high chemical stability make them attractive electrode materials for supercapacitors and rechargeable batteries. This review highlights recent advances in COF-based composites and their enhanced electrochemical performance in different energy storage devices. Particular emphasis is given to rational design strategies in which COFs are combined with conductive polymers, carbon-based nanomaterials, and metal oxides. These hybrid structures help overcome the inherent limitations of pristine COFs, such as low electrical conductivity and limited redox activity. The relationship between structure, properties, and electrochemical performance of COF-based electrodes is critically discussed for batteries and supercapacitors. Key performance parameters, including specific capacity, rate capability, and cycling stability, are systematically analyzed. Despite significant progress, several challenges remain, with scalable synthesis methods, cost-effectiveness, and long-term stability. Upcoming research should focus on the development of multifunctional COF composites, environmentally friendly synthesis approaches, and the application of machine learning techniques to accelerate the optimization of high-performance energy storage materials.

Selective hydrosilylation of 1,3-conjugated dienes affords high-value allylsilanes and homoallylsilanes with broad applications in organic synthesis, pharmaceuticals, and functional materials. Nevertheless, precise chemo-, regio-, and stereocontrol remains a fundamental challenge, and conventional noble-metal catalysts are limited by scarcity and low sustainability. Earth-abundant metals combined with ligand engineering represent a promising alternative. This review covers 2020-2025 advances in ligand-controlled hydrosilylation over Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu systems, focusing on structure-selectivity relationships, regulatory mechanisms, remaining challenges and future outlooks.